1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to devices used for retaining covers in place on utility poles and, more particularly, is concerned with a releasable retention assembly adapted for use in temporarily retaining utility pole covers and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A utility pole can conduct electricity. Both a wood pole, due to preservatives in the pole, and a metal pole are electrical conductors. Therefore, personnel installing a utility pole to a working (live) line are susceptible to electrocution. The top of the utility pole should be insulated during installation because the top may come into contact with the working line as the utility pole is raised into place.
Heretofore, covers made of a plastic sheet material which do not conduct electricity have been placed around the top of the utility pole. The cover is typically five to six feet long and rolled into a split tube such that longitudinal edge portions of the tubular cover overlap one another for about one-third of the circumference of the tubular cover. The bottom circumferential edge portion of the tubular cover has buttons or snaps while a top circumferential edge portion of the cover has holes or openings which slip over the buttons of an adjacent cover such that two or three covers may be stacked one above the other to cover a distance of approximately fifteen to eighteen feet of the utility pole.
The tubular cover must be held temporarily in place on the utility pole during the process of installation of the pole and then removed after installation. When a wood utility pole is used, a lineman typically will retain the tubular cover in place by the rather crude technique of sticking a screwdriver into the wood below the bottom edge of the cover. Then, once the utility pole is installed, the workman knocks the screwdriver out and the cover and screwdriver fall from the pole to the ground. However, metal utility poles are used in addition to wood utility poles. The screwdriver technique cannot be used with metal utility poles.
Consequently, a need remains for a device that can be used effectively for retaining an insulating cover on a top of a metal utility pole which overcomes the aforementioned problems associated with a prior art utility pole cover retaining techniques without introducing any new problems in place thereof.